Lucy covered her eyes upon lifting the blinds, but it wouldn't take long before they adjusted to the morning light. Staring at the tall buildings of downtown in the distance, she squints to barely make out the tip of a rectangular roof. “That should be it,” she told herself as she stared at what she convinced herself to be the roof of the train station's bell tower. Her attention turns downward to the puddles on the street reflecting the morning sun. She wiggled her toes on the carpet which caused her to smile momentarily before sighing. “I better get ready for school.”

--

"Is that a new phone?" Jenny asked.

"My dad bought it for me,” Lucy answered. “I didn't get to choose it, however."

"Well, at least you have a new phone. Sorry for last time. I didn't mean to get into your business and break your phone. I was just fooling around."

"That's okay. I probably shouldn't have been so rough too. That's why I have a lanyard now. See?" Flipping her wrist, a strap was attached from her phone to her arm.

"Oh, what a cute parrot," Jenny said pointing to the dangling macaw figuring attached.

"Yeah. I got it on my trip to the beach."

"You went to the beach?"

"Yeah, last Saturday."

"Oh cool. Did your dad take you?"

"No. I went with a friend."

Jenny gave Lucy a smirk. "Oh, which friend?"

"Nobody in particular."

"It wouldn't happen to be someone... special, would it?"

"Jenny..."

“I'm just kidding, okay? If you don't want to tell me about your boyfriend, that's fine."

Lucy groaned. 'I should have never said anything. Me and my big mouth. But the cat's out of the bag. She knows, so maybe...' Lucy requested to talk in a more secluded area, which Jenny obliged. Upon arriving at the back of the main building, Lucy exhaled deeply.

"Oh, this is gonna be good," Jenny said excitedly, prompting a look of disapproval from Lucy. "Sorry. Tell me, what's going on?"

"Alright, here it is. I'm not going to pretend anymore.” She took another deep breath, “I like Johan, but he's afraid of being with me."

"But why?"

"He's an adult and I'm still just a kid. When we went to the beach, I could see he wasn't too comfortable hanging out with me. I really like him, but can we even be together? Is it even allowed?"

"Why not?" Jenny responded, surprising Lucy with her short answer. "If you like him, tell him."

"I can't just tell him. He's already so nervous to begin with."

"Nervous? I thought he was a man. Adults don't get nervous."

"Johan is quite sensitive, which is why I don't want to push anything on him. Except I kind of did on Saturday. I just blurted out 'let's go to the beach' and he took me, even though he was so uncomfortable. I feel bad now, especially since it rained in the end and we got soaked."

"You really like this guy, don't you?"

"Yeah... I do."

"Does he like you back?"

"I don't know."

"I think he likes you."

"What makes you think that?"

"Come on, Lucy. This is me we're talking about. I'm kind of an expert on these things."

"You don't even know him."

"That's right, I don't. So why don't you introduce me to him."

"No, I don't think so."

"Are you afraid he's going to pick me over you?"

"Knock it off. Besides, you have a boyfriend already."

"Oh, don't even talk about him today."

"Did you have another fight?"

"Yeah, we're still fighting. He refuses to acknowledge me as his girlfriend in front of his friends. I'm getting tired of him constantly telling me he's tired of me telling him and to stop telling him to tell his friends about us but no, he just won't listen, even though I told my friends that I had a boyfriend and I'm even respecting his wishes to not tell them who it is but my friends keep insisting I tell them who it is so I'm getting kind of tired of playing around with them so I told him that if he doesn't tell his friends I'm going to tell them and then he threatened to break up with me and then I told him I was going to break up with him first and then we started yelling at each other and..." Jenny would have continued had Lucy not begin to chuckle. "Why are you laughing?"

"You're like the opposite of me. You want all the attention that comes with a boyfriend, don't you?"

"I said I didn't want to talk about him. Why do you think I want to talk about him now?"

"Jenny, you're silly."

"What does that mean?"

"It's obvious you're doing this for attention."

"Will you stop it already?"

"Then you don't like him anymore?"

"I didn't say that either."

"Are you thinking of breaking up with him?"

"Uhh... well... I'm giving him a second chance, and I'm sure he'll do the right thing."

Lucy patted Jenny's shoulder, "Don't rush him. He's just embarrassed to admit to his friends he has a girlfriend. They'll probably make fun of him or something like that."

"Yeah, well I told my friends-"

"Those are your friends, not his. Give him time. Besides, if you really do like him, then what does it matter if the whole world doesn't know about it? As I said, you sound like you just want a boyfriend to show off."

"No, that's not it. Kind of."

"Then just be happy together, even if nobody else knows. Besides, I'm sure you don't want your parents to find out, right?"

"My mom is fine with it."

“She is? Oh, yeah, your mom. I figured she would.”

The bell rang and both parted ways. "I'm not giving up on this, Lucy."

"Just be patient, Jenny."

"Fine, whatever. I'll see you later."

As the two go off to their respective classes, Lucy thought, 'Patience, huh?'